Improving home security by switching from TP-Link to OpenWrt

Odds are, you have a TP-Link router at home since their products are affordable and readily available. With a 65% U.S. market share, these devices have become the go-to router to distribute internet traffic in most homes.

However, TP-Link has a history of broken promises bordering on negligence. Your home router is the “bouncer” of your home network’s most sensitive information. It needs to be frequently updated to stay on top of vulnerabilities as well as performance. As detailed by a recent WSJ article, TP-Link would prefer you buy a new router rather than having to keep your current router performing as it should. If you have a TP-Link router, your “bouncer” is blindfolded and armed with a pink pool noodle.

But, why should you care? Maybe you’re not worried about someone stealing your passwords, viewing your security cams, or other mischief. You’re one in billions of people they could target and surely, they have someone better to pick on.

You’re right, hackers do have more lucrative targets in mind, and they need your home connection as an accomplice. Ransomware and botnet attacks can provide hackers payouts in the millions. Garmin ($10MM), Colonial Pipeline ($4.4MM) and CNA Financials ($40MM) have all had to pay up to get their customer data back from bad actors. Some hacking techniques like DDoS attacks require sending a flood of requests to overwhelm their target.

Going Open Source with OpenWrt

Years ago, I started taking our home network security seriously and began to get involved with the fantastic OpenWrt community of developers. This group has built open-source router software called OpenWrt. This software provides your home network with up-to-date security, a powerful interface, and full transparency into the firmware your most important device on your home network is running.

To be sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve to setup and understand OpenWrt. You’ll be fine if you’ve worked with command line or SSH. It’s a journey that earns peace of mind and top tier performance for your home network.

Interested in diving in? I’d recommend picking up a supported router like the GL.iNet MT6000 and use this guide to flash the latest version of OpenWrt.